Download or read book Southern Baptists Observed written by Nancy Tatom Ammerman and published by Univ. of Tennessee Press. This book was released on 1993 with total page 380 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Baptist Battles written by Nancy Tatom Ammerman and published by Rutgers University Press. This book was released on 1990 with total page 410 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since 1979 Southern Baptists have been noisily struggling to agree on symbols, beliefs, and practices as they attempt to make sense of their changing social world. Nancy Ammerman has carefully documented their struggle. She tells the story of the Baptist reversal from a moderate to a fundamentalist outlook and speculates on the future of the denomination. Ammerman places change among the Southern Baptists in the context of the cultural and economic changes that have transformed the South from its rural past into an urbanizing, culturally diverse region. Not only did the South change; Southern Baptists did as well. Reflecting this diversity, the Southern Baptist bureaucracy was relatively progressive. During the 1960s and 1970s, moderate sentiments prevailed, while fundamentalists remained on the margins. These two were, however, becoming increasingly divergent in what they considered important about being a Baptist, in their views about the Bible, in their attitudes on the origination of women, on Christian morals, and on national politics. Late in the 1970s, a fundamentalist coalition emerged, followed by unsuccessful efforts by moderates to oppose it. The battles escalated until 1985, when 45,000 Baptists gathered in Dallas to decide between contending presidential candidates. That dramatic event illustrated the extent to which organized political resources were determining the course of the conflict. Ammerman studies these strategies and resources as well. Examining how this tension affected Baptists, Ammerman begins with case studies of the change it is producing in Baptist agencies. But she also brings us back to the local churches and individual believers who are renegotiating their relationships within their denomination. She asks whether the denomination's polity can accommodate an increasingly diverse group of Baptists, of whether the only way dissidents can have a voice is through schism.

Download or read book Southern Baptist Consensus and Renewal written by David S. Dockery and published by B&H Publishing Group. This book was released on 2008-06-01 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An alternative to the controversial New Baptist Covenant, Southern Baptist Consensus and Renewal calls Southern Baptists to boldly unite and renew their commitment to the gospel, biblical authority, and their confessional heritage. Endorsements "Finally, Southern Baptists of the twenty-first century are shown the way back home. David Dockery, in the convincing and studied manner so typical of all his writings, calls for a fresh return to our theological, educational, and missiological roots . . . (providing) a compass by which to steer us out of our doldrums and onto the high seas of effectiveness." —Tom Eliff, senior vice president, International Mission Board, and former president, Southern Baptist Convention. "A comprehensive and challenging mandate . . . It calls our denomination to nothing less than a Great Commission resurgence rooted in the great biblical and theological truths that we hold in common. It is my prayer that this book will not only be read, but that its vision will be embraced." —Daniel L. Akin, president, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary "Southern Baptists stand at a crossroads today . . . David Dockery, one of our finest scholar-statesmen, points the way toward a more constructive future for a denomination called to reclaim its founding purpose of ‘eliciting, combining, and directing’ its energies in sharing the message of Jesus Christ with all the world." —Timothy George, founding dean, Beeson Divinity School "These are turbulent days in the Southern Baptist Convention . . . Our churches are struggling to reach people in a postmodern culture. Dockery reminds us that we cannot yield the gains the Convention has made in its commitment to truth and doctrinal fidelity. Yet, he offers a plan for renewal and consensus within our confessional heritage." —Thom S. Rainer, president, Lifeway Christian Resources; coauthor of Simple Church "A skillful analysis of the forces and factors which have made us who we are; a masterful discussion of theological issues that should pull us together and point us toward unity." —Frank S. Page, president, Southern Baptist Convention

Download or read book Southern Baptist Identity written by David S. Dockery and published by Crossway. This book was released on 2009 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this collection of essays, sixteen Southern Baptist leaders address key issues of theology, polity, and practice to ascertain the future of the Southern Baptist Convention in particular and evangelicalism in general.

Download or read book Southern Baptist Politics written by Arthur Emery Farnsley, II and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 2010-11 with total page 174 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Unlike other recent studies of the Southern Baptists, Southern Baptist Politics was written after the culmination of the &"Baptist battles&" of the 1980s, when Fundamentalists had effectively taken control of the denomination. It also considers the SBC not simply as a denomination but as an organization with characteristics similar to other voluntary associations in American society&—an approach that promises to be useful for the study of other religious groups in America. Arthur Farnsley concludes that the SBC, as an American denomination, had within itself the seeds of pragmatism and individualism that characterize most American voluntary organizations. Of primary interest to Farnsley are the crucial issues of authority and power. Taking his cue from Paul Harrison's classic study, Authority and Power in the Free Church Tradition, Farnsley considers how authority has traditionally been exercised within the SBC, and how Fundamentalists maneuvered within this existing authority structure to seize power. According to Farnsley, disgruntled Fundamentalists soon discovered that they could exploit the democratic elements within the SBC polity to their advantage. So successful were they in their efforts that by 1990 all significant leadership positions within the denomination were filled by Fundamentalists, thus enabling them to take, and hold, institutional power. The lessons of Southern Baptist Politics extend beyond this one denomination. By using the Southern Baptists as a case study, Farnsley asks what the SBC controversy can tell us about religious organizations in America, about dealing with cultural pluralism, and about institutional means for creating change.

Download or read book Alabama Baptists written by Wayne Flynt and published by University of Alabama Press. This book was released on 1998 with total page 768 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The definitive history of the dominant religious group within the state during the last two centuries

Download or read book The Way We Were written by Fisher Humphreys and published by Smyth & Helwys Publishing, Inc.. This book was released on 2002 with total page 164 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Way We Were is a book about the theological dimensions of the controversy that shook the foundations of the Southern Baptist Convention during the decades of the 80s and 90s. That controversy began at the national level, far from most Baptist laypeople, trickled down to the state Baptist conventions, where it included a much broader audience, and now has moved into local churches. --from forward

Download or read book Fundamentalisms Observed written by American Academy of Arts and Sciences and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 1994-07 with total page 892 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Fundamentalism Project vol. 1.

Download or read book In Search of the New Testament Church written by C. Douglas Weaver and published by Mercer University Press. This book was released on 2008 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When John Smyth organized the first Baptist church, he wanted to establish the New Testament church; believer's baptism was the missing link. Baptists of subsequent eras often continued the search to embody "New Testament Christianity." Unique to surveys of Baptist life, Doug Weaver highlights this restorationist theme as a way to understand Baptist identity. Weaver does not force the theme, but the "search" is ever present. It is found in the insistence upon believer's baptism, but also in examples like the Sabbath worship of Seventh Day Baptists, the "nine rites" of colonial Separate Baptists, the women preachers of Free Will Baptists, the "trail of blood" of Landmarkism, the social gospel of Walter Rauschenbusch, the "fundamentals" of fundamentalism and the ministry of the European pioneer Johann Oncken. Like other recent Baptist studies, Weaver describes Baptist diversity. Still, he highlights the persistent commitment of most Baptists to an informal constellation of "Baptist distinctives." Alongside the quest for the New Testament church (and congregational community), Weaver especially highlights the Baptist commitment to religious liberty and the individual conscience. This emphasis, while later reinforced by Enlightenment ideals, could already be found in the biblicist piety of the earliest Baptists who insisted that individual believers must have the right to choose their religious beliefs because they would stand alone before God at the final judgment. Both chronological and thematic, this book addresses such themes as the role of women, the social gospel, ecumenism, charismatic influences, and theological emphases in Baptist life. The book's focus is America, but it also includes helpful introductory chapters on early English Baptists and international Baptists.

Download or read book The Baptist River written by William Glenn Jonas and published by Mercer University Press. This book was released on 2008 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This Baptist history textbook highlights the diversity of the Baptist movement in North America as it has developed over the past few centuries. Under the Baptist tent are such diverse groups as Primitive Baptists, Freewill Baptists, Seventh-Day Baptists, American Baptists, Southern Baptists, North American Baptists, and Independent Baptists. Each of these Baptists groups shares some basic Baptist principles. However, there are significant theological and social differences between them. This book is the ideal survey for undergraduate-level students.

Download or read book Rise of Baptist Republicanism written by Oran P. Smith and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2000-05 with total page 351 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In its emerging Republicanism, the SBC has taken on characteristics of its more active fellow travelers in the Christian Right, forging alliances with former enemies (African Americans and Roman Catholics), playing presidential politics, establishing a Washington lobbying presence, working the political grassroots, and declaring war on Walt Disney. Each of these missions has been accomplished with calculating political precision.

Download or read book Baptists in America written by Thomas S Kidd and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2015-05-01 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Puritans called Baptists "the troublers of churches in all places" and hounded them out of Massachusetts Bay Colony. Four hundred years later, Baptists are the second-largest religious group in America, and their influence matches their numbers. They have built strong institutions, from megachurches to publishing houses to charities to mission organizations, and have firmly established themselves in the mainstream of American culture. Yet the historical legacy of outsider status lingers, and the inherently fractured nature of their faith makes Baptists ever wary of threats from within as well as without. In Baptists in America, Thomas S. Kidd and Barry Hankins explore the long-running tensions between church, state, and culture that Baptists have shaped and navigated. Despite the moment of unity that their early persecution provided, their history has been marked by internal battles and schisms that were microcosms of national events, from the conflict over slavery that divided North from South to the conservative revolution of the 1970s and 80s. Baptists have made an indelible impact on American religious and cultural history, from their early insistence that America should have no established church to their place in the modern-day culture wars, where they frequently advocate greater religious involvement in politics. Yet the more mainstream they have become, the more they have been pressured to conform to the mainstream, a paradox that defines--and is essential to understanding--the Baptist experience in America. Kidd and Hankins, both practicing Baptists, weave the threads of Baptist history alongside those of American history. Baptists in America is a remarkable story of how one religious denomination was transformed from persecuted minority into a leading actor on the national stage, with profound implications for American society and culture.

Download or read book All According to God s Plan written by Alan Scot Willis and published by University Press of Kentucky. This book was released on 2021-12-14 with total page 329 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Southern Baptists had long considered themselves a missionary people, but when, after World War II, they embarked on a dramatic expansion of missionary efforts, they confronted headlong the problem of racism. Believing that racism hindered their evangelical efforts, the Convention's full-time missionaries and mission board leaders attacked racism as unchristian, thus finding themselves at odds with the pervasive racist and segregationist ideologies that dominated the South. This progressive view of race stressed the biblical unity of humanity, encompassing all races and transcending specific ethnic divisions. In All According to God's Plan, Alan Scot Willis explores these beliefs and the chasm they created within the Convention. He shows how, in the post-World War II era, the most respected members of the Southern Baptists Convention publicly challenged the most dearly held ideologies of the white South.

Download or read book A Genealogy of Dissent written by David Stricklin and published by University Press of Kentucky. This book was released on 2021-10-21 with total page 333 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Between the Civil War and the turn of the last century, Southern Baptists gained prominence in the religious life of the South. As their power increased, they became defenders of the racial, political, social, and economic status quo. By the beginning of this century, however, a feisty tradition of dissent began to appear in Southern Baptist life as criticism of the center increased from both the left and the right. The popular belief in a doctrine of "once saved, always saved" led progressive Baptists to claim that moderates, once saved, did not address the serious social and political problems that faced many in the South. These Baptist dissenters claimed that they could not be "at ease in Zion." Led by the radical Walter Nathan Johnson in the 1920s and 1930s, progressive Baptists produced civil rights advocates, labor organizers, women's rights advocates, and proponents of disarmament and abolition of capital punishment. They challenged some of the most fundamental aspects of southern society and of Baptist ecclesiastical structure and practice. For their efforts and beliefs, many of these men and women suffered as they lost jobs, experienced physical danger and injury, and endured character assassination. In A Genealogy of Dissent, David Stricklin traces the history of these progressive Baptists and their descendants throughout the twentieth century and shows how they created an active culture of protest within a highly traditional society.

Download or read book Authority Vested written by Mary Todd and published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. This book was released on 2000 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Like other major Protestant denominations in the United States, the 2.6-million-member Luther Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS), founded in 1847, has struggled with issues of relevance and identity in society at large. In this book Mary Todd chronicles the history of this struggle for identity in the LCMS, critically examining the central--often contentious--issue of authority in relation to Scripture, ministry, and the role of women in the church. In recounting the history of the denomination, Todd uses the ministry of women as a case study to show how the LCMS has continually redefined its concept of authority in order to maintain its own historic identity. Based on oral histories and solid archival research, Authority Vested not only explores the internal life of a significant denomination but also offers critical insights for other churches seeking to maintain their Christian distinctives in religiously pluralistic America.

Download or read book Religion and the American Experience A Social and Cultural History 1765 1996 written by Donald C. Swift and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-12-05 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Religion in the USA manifests itself in many forms and this book examines them, from religion in the early republic, to early African American religion, reform, nativism movements, and fundamentalism, up to the contemporary culture wars, in a study that spans almost 250 years.

Download or read book Anatomy of a Schism written by Eileen Campbell-Reed and published by Univ. of Tennessee Press. This book was released on 2019-08-13 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Eileen Campbell-Reed has taken a fascinating denominational schism and rendered it in a new and plausible way. She has accomplished something most of us who have worked on Southern Baptists are ill-equipped to do, and therefore makes a unique and important contribution to the study of Southern Baptists in particular and religion in America more broadly. This is a well-argued work of scholarship based on solid evidence.” —Barry Hankins, author of Baptists in America: A History From 1979 to 2000, the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) was mired in conflict, with the biblicist and autonomist parties fighting openly for control. This highly polarizing struggle ended in a schism that created major changes within the SBC and also resulted in the formation of several new Baptist groups. Discussions of the schism, academic and otherwise, generally ignore the church’s clergywomen for the roles they played and the contributions they made to the fracturing of the largest Protestant group in the United States. Ordained women are typically treated as a contentious issue between the parties. Only recently are scholars beginning to take seriously these women’s contributions and interpretations as active participants in the struggle. Anatomy of a Schism is the first book on the Southern Baptist split to place ordained women’s narratives at the center of interpretation. Author Eileen Campbell-Reed brings her unique perspective as a pastoral theologian in conducting qualitative interviews with five Baptist clergywomen and allowing their narratives to focus attention on both psychological and theological issues of the split. The stories she uncovers offer a compelling new structure for understanding the path of Southern Baptists at the close of the twentieth century. The narratives of Anna, Martha, Joanna, Rebecca, and Chloe reframe the story of Southern Baptists and reinterpret the rupture and realignment in broad and significant ways. Together they offer an understanding of the schism from three interdisciplinary perspectives—gendered, psychological, and theological—not previously available together. In conversation with other historical events and documents, the women’s narratives collaborate to provide specific perspectives with universal implications for understanding changes in Baptist life over the last four decades. The schism’s outcomes held profound consequences for Baptist individuals and communities. Anatomy of Schism is an illuminating ethnographic and qualitative study sure to be indispensable to scholars of theology, history, and women’s studies alike. EILEEN R. CAMPBELL-REED is associate professor of practical theology at Central Baptist Theological Seminary in Nashville, Tennessee, and codirector of the Learning Pastoral Imagination Project, a longitudinal study of ministry. She is the author of Being Baptist: A Resource for Individual and Group Study and numerous articles about women in ministry.